Lojban/Attitudinals

Attitudinals are markers of attitude or emotion, modifying the word (brivla, cmavo, cmene, sumti, or tanru) directly before it. For example, the simple << mlatu >> for "cat" can become << mlatu .ui >> for "cat (happiness!/:D)". At the beginning of a sentence (after the place of .i) they modify the entire sentence (bridi), and after the attitudinal beginning bracket << fu'e >> continues the emotion for all the statement until the closing bracket << fu'o >>.

Attitudinals can also effect vocatives the same way a change in vocal tone can greatly effect a simple "hello" - for example, << coi .ui >> means not a simple "Hello.", but a "Hello! :D". Combined with the attitudinal question-maker pei, you can easily create more complex << coi .uipei >> may be thought of as "Hello - are you glad to see me?", while << co'o .uipei >> may be viewed as "Good-bye - are you happy that we part?".

Beyond mere emotion, they can mark prepositional ideas such as desire ("I want this to happen"), obligation ("This needs to happen"), and many other complex functions we take for granted - for example, << mi citka >> means "I eat", while << .au mi citka >> means "I want to eat", and << .e'e mi citka >> means "I am able to eat".